Atarot, Qalandiya, Wed 9.1.08, Afternoon

First day of Bush's visit, curfew in all the West Bank.

The soldiers checking at the new checkpoint near the Atarot industrial compound, just out of the 443 road, are rather unmotivated and therefore the waiting line is not prolonged.

At the Qalandiya checkpoint there are many cars crossing north from Jerusalem.  At the pedestrian lane a man with a permit, who works in Ramallah and lives in one of the neighborhoods south of the checkpoint, is not allowed to cross the checkpoint and reach his home.  With a very mild tone of voice he explains that his permit was not accepted and then, without raising his voice and as if he was very tired, he tells us:  F..k Bush, F..k Israel, F..k  you.

There are less people than usual crossing southward, although we see youngsters with books so some educational institution must be open, despite the preparations in Ramallah for Bush's visit.

Out of the 3 turnstiles placed outside of the checking area, only 1 is open but since it doesn't show any light (neither red=closed nor green=open) all Palestinians who try to enter the checking area believe it is not working and try to go through the other 2 turnstiles.  The soldier sitting inside the booth placed beside the turnstiles looks at how they all have to try the 3 different turnstiles until they find the turnstile that is open – a game of trial and error.  This additional harassment and humiliation makes people furious.

At 17:00 p.m. many workers return from Jerusalem; they could obviously go out in the morning to work so some permits must have been accepted.

Despite the fact that at this site there has been a checkpoint of some sort for almost 7 years (the first checking took place in the summer of 2001), still the soldiers are quite illiterate in Arabic: they say words that sound like Arabic and then shout them out when Palestinians don't understand what they say.